"Yoga is an ancient discipline from India". This is the common conception of our practice.

A concept that has little effect on the way class are given and taken. Perhaps it's just the assumption that it's not just gymnastics, but also a "spiritual" discipline. Few have the appetite to delve deeper into this dimension.

As a teacher, I naturally sought to understand this. My surprise was to discover endless variations on the theme, often contradictory and very superficial.

This book, written in 2015, is a "narrative of exploration": a collection of my research into the body and "spiritual" dimensions. Its title, which was intended to be "humorous" or even slightly desperate, is no longer relevant: since then, I've found numerous books written by (often Anglo-Saxon) scholars who have clarified the unclarifiable: modern yoga is a contemporary translation that borders on misunderstanding if we insist on giving it a pure origin, if only from the 15th century onwards.

Today, my position is that it's pointless to look behind us for an orthodox foundation, but that it's up to us to enrich the practice on the carpet of our more fundamental questions. From this point of view, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic or philosophical points of view of all kinds are acceptable as ways of asking questions, of articulating sensible or mystical answers, or not.

Benoit Conotte, Professor

* To "profess":

1.     To confess publicly, to acknowledge something highly. 

2.     (Aged) To exercise.

3.     Teaching publicly.